Last night, Joseph Yannielli posted an essay at the HASTAC website that discusses how he incorporated aspects of the Digital Humanities into a class he taught. “My Runaway Class” begins by acknowledging that students who are “digital natives” raised on computers do not necessarily know how to use technology well; something I have found in my own teaching.  I agree with Yannielli that it is part of our job as faculty members to teach them literacies to both access and incorporate digital materials into their research. Yannielli does not provide details about how to use specific technologies, but his essay does demonstrate the many benefits of incorporating such technologies into our classes.

Because Yannielli teaches at Yale University and would have fewer students in his classes than I do at Schoolcraft College, it might be easy to dismiss his use of technologies as being impossible to implement in my classes. Furthermore, too many of us at the community college level underestimate the abilities of our students while overestimating the abilities of students at elite colleges.    I am convinced that Yale students are not more technologically literate than the students with whom I engage in my classes.

Furthermore, Yannielli’s text is aspirational and inspirational.  From my experience both in the classroom and being involved with others who push technology, I am aware that many of his suggestions can be successfully implemented in classes of 28-31 students.  I cannot teach like Yannielli nor would I want to do so. However, aspects of his use of the Digital Humanities can be adapted around my classroom approach and personality as a professor.

One of the benefits I have found in adapting aspects of the digital humanities into my classes and encouraging/requiring students to better use technology is that the projects and papers that students complete in my courses tend to be more interesting than had they not benefited from the digital humanities. For example, instead of relying on Google searches to find topics, I currently have students consulting contemporaneous documents that they locate through Google Books. Students are learning more and the class is more interesting for them–as well as for me.

Reading an encyclopedia explanation of digital humanities such as the one found in Wikipedia or visiting the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Office of Digital Humanities has value.  But Yannielli takes theory into practice and demonstrates how the digital humanities can benefit our students and make our classes more exciting to teach.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD